Darlington School rings in its 115th year
Entire school gathers under one roof
Holding a brass hand bell that was used to signal class changes in the early 1900’s, Darlington senior and student body president Kasey Barnett rang in the new school year which has been a Darlington tradition since 2005.
Thursday morning’s Opening Convocation was more than just an annual gathering, Tannika King, director of communications for the school said, it is the first event of the school year where the entire school is present.
While Monday was officially the start of classes, tradition dictates Darlington’s 115th year began when Barnett rang the bell.
Darlington’s Head of School Brent Bell welcomed the new and returning students.
Bell told them a story from his youth when someone went out of their way to be kind to him when they didn’t need to be.
“My hope for every one of us this year is that we will be that person,” he told the students. “Do we laugh and play (when someone is in need) or do we step forward and help.”
Chandler Pittman, honor council president, told the Darlington student body that as students they must pledge to put honor above everything else. Pittman said the culture at Darlington has become one of trust that can’t be found at most schools.
Eighth-grader Maddox Pyle said to him honor and truthfulness went hand in hand. Sara Jo Pierce, a Darlington fifth-grade student, said to her honor meant kindness. “Choose being kind,” she told her schoolmates. In the crowd of Darlington students, 17 U.S. states and 28 countries were represented according to Tara Inman, dean of students for global education.
When the school first started, it only contained students from the Rome area she said. Flags from each student’s country was brought in at the beginning of Thursday’s convocation and put on display in the Huffman Athletic Center.
The convocation was concluded by the ringing of the bell, but not before Dean of College Guidance Samuel Moss III gave a background on the bell and its significance to the school. The bell was used by Shem Thomas during his time as the school janitor from 1905-1949.
Thomas was highly regarded among students and the headmaster, Moss said. The janitor rang the bell to signal the start of school, class change and school dismissal.
Moss said he found a poem in a Darlington annual from the 1920s written in honor of Thomas from the headmaster at the time. This was significant because in the ’20s it was unheard of for a headmaster of a private school to publicly praise a black janitor, he said.
The bell Thomas rang has been saved over the years and during the school’s centennial convocation in 2005 it was used to ring in the new school year.
Now, 14 years later, the school kept up the tradition to honor Thomas.